This invention relates to weather stripping that is particularly suited for sealing the spaces or joints that exist between doors, windows and other closures or the like and the frames or structural supports therefor.
Pile weather strip is well known and has been commercially available for many years. It consists of a backing to which is secured a pile strip of resilient fibers. Typical of a pile weather strip is that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,175,256, issued Mar. 30, 1965, R. C. Horton. The pile weather strip shown in that patent is sold under the trade mark Fin-Seal and is characterized by a barrier strip of impervious, flexible, sheet material fixed to the backing and located within the pile strip. In its more elementary form conventional pile weather strip omits the aforementioned barrier strip.
Pile weather strip commonly is supported in what is known as a T-slot. The T-slot may be in the closure element, e.g., door or window, or in the frame or support therefor. In any event, as the name implies, it is a T-shaped slot having a longitudinally extending groove (the crossbar of the T) and a longitudinally extending opening (the upright of the T) communicating with the groove and of lesser width than the width of the groove. Commonly the pile weather strip is inserted into the T-slot from an open end threof and is slid longitudinally into location in the T-slot. Generally this is not a problem when the weather strip is being installed in the closure or frame at the factory, although this mode of installation does become more difficult as the length of the T-slot increases.
Pile weather strip does wear out, of course, and it may be necessary to replace it from time-to-time in the field. In the field it may not be possible to gain access to an open end of the T-slot, at least without substantial disassembly of the closure, frame or other support, which is time-consuming and costly. Therefore, what is required is some technique that will permit pile weather stripping to be readily retrofitted in the field when access to the open end of the T-slot is not possible or difficult.
A solution to this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,038, issued Sept. 12, 1972, Melven L. Dieterich. However, the Dieterich weather strip utilizes an extruded profile and a considerable amount of plastic material and, thus, would be comparatively expensive to make. Additionally, in the Dieterich weather strip a part of the plastic profile projects beyond the T-slot requiring a relatively large mounting distance between the closure element and the frame or support therefor, whereas the industry trend is towards smaller mounting distances. In other words, in the Dieterich weather strip the distance "g" necessarily is large in order to accommodate a notch of appropriate depth "e".